Big East wait won't be long
ACC expected to move soon
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 04, 2003

The Atlantic Coast Conference's final site visit ends today, and the league isn't expected to wait long before issuing formal invitations to its three Big East targets.

Delegations have toured the University of Miami and Boston College, and the final group of ACC representatives, which like its predecessors includes Commissioner John Swofford, will conclude its inspection of Syracuse University's campus and facilities today.

Perhaps as early as this week, those delegations will report to ACC presidents, probably via teleconference, on what they learned. Then the presidents will vote on whether to extend invitations to Miami, BC and Syracuse.

ACC bylaws require site visits to candidates for membership, but in this case, they're considered little more than formalities. The nine-member ACC announced May 16 that it had targeted Miami, BC and Syracuse, and its push for expansion hasn't slowed since.

It's possible, of course, that one or more of the Big East schools would decide not to join the ACC. But that's highly unlikely, sources in both leagues have said.

Boston College Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo, Wake Forest AD Ron Wellman and Swofford held a news conference Monday afternoon at BC. DeFillipo said that "we've had some very, very positive dialogue and discussion. I know that we at Boston College had a lot of questions to ask and got a lot of those questions answered."

Leaving the Big East would be painful for BC, DeFilippo told reporters. He added, though, that the "ACC does a number of things. It secures our future, and that is very, very important. It puts us in a league that could be one of the very, very best in America athletically and academically. If this were to work, six of the 12 teams in this league would be among the top 40 institutions in America according to U.S. News & World Report. This affiliation, should it happen, would give us an entree into [the South] for students. This affiliation, should it happen, would give us the possibility of enhancing revenue down the road."

Miami's president, Donna Shalala, is scheduled to meet today in the Washington area with some of her Big East counterparts.

The ACC wants to expand and split into two six-school divisions. According to published reports, one scenario that's being seriously considered would place Virginia, Syracuse, N.C. State, Wake, Florida State and Clemson in one division, with Maryland, BC, North Carolina, Duke, Miami and Georgia Tech in the other.

U.Va. Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said yesterday that he believes each school would continue to play 16 conference basketball games in an expanded league, but it hasn't been determined how the members would be divided.

"It's too early to tell on the alignments," Littlepage said.

No decisions would be made, the ACC source said, until the new members accept their invitations.

"We want to make sure they are part of the whole process," the source said. "I'm sure [possible scenarios have] been talked about, but no one's going to make those kinds of decisions till the expansion issue is settled first."

 

U.VA. NOTES
Jun 04, 2003

ANOTHER HONOR? Midfielder Chris Rotelli is the favorite to receive the Tewaaraton Award, college lacrosse's version of the Heisman Trophy, tonight in Washington.

Rotelli, a two-time first-team All-American, helped the Cavaliers win the NCAA title in Baltimore last month. The reigning ACC player of the year, Rotelli thrice made the all-conference team and as a senior became the first midfielder in U.Va. history to have 20 goals and 20 assists in a season.

A resident of Rumford, R.I., Rotelli finished with 26 goals and 23 assists. The other men's finalists are Adam Doneger and Kyle Harrison of Johns Hopkins, Duke's Kevin Cassese and Syracuse's Michael Powell, last year's winner.

U.Va.'s Lauren Aumiller is among the five finalists for the women's Tewaaraton Award.

PICK OF THE LITTER: Rotelli was the first choice in last week's Major League Lacrosse draft. The Bridgeport (Conn.) Barrage, one of the MLL's six teams, selected Rotelli.

Four other Cavaliers were chosen in the five-round draft: midfielder A.J. Shannon, one of the New Jersey Pride's two first-round selections; midfielder Billy Glading, the Rochester (N.Y.) Rattlers' third-round pick; long-stick middie Trey Whitty, the Baltimore Bayhawks' fourth-round pick; and defenseman Ned Bowen, the Boston Cannons' fifth-round selection.

MAJOR BOOST: In recent years, U.Va.'s football and baseball teams have benefited from the renovations of their respective stadiums. Men's basketball coach Pete Gillen said the opening of 15,000-seat John Paul Jones Arena in 2006 should help his program immensely.

The Cavaliers' current home, University Hall, is nearly 40 years old and is the ACC's smallest arena. Its replacement, Gillen said, will impress blue-chip prospects.

"I think it shows that Virginia wants to be a major, major player on the basketball scene," he said. "They said it, but talk is easy. Now they showed that, hey, 'We want to be great in football, we want to be great in other sports, in baseball we're going to continue to get better.'

"It's important. Unfortunately, we're in a materialistic world, and players want to see concrete [evidence of support]; they don't want to hear idealism."

ROCKY MOUNTAIN BLUES: After three days of tryouts in Colorado Springs, Colo., Virginia's Derrick Byars wasn't among the finalists selected for USA Basketball's Junior World Championship Team or its Pan American Games Team.

Former U.Va. coach Terry Holland chairs the USA Basketball men's collegiate committee. Holland said Byars played well in the final two sessions in Colorado Springs but struggled in the first two, which hurt the 6-7 swingman's chances.

Byars, a rising sophomore, started 16 games for U.Va. in 2002-03 and averaged 6.5 points and 2.9 rebounds. Last summer, Byars was among 16 finalists for USA Basketball's Junior World Championship Qualifying Team.

DESTINATION UNKNOWN: If Keith Jenifer has picked a new school, neither his former coaches at U.Va. nor Mike Daniel, for whom he played at Towson (Md.) Catholic, knows about it.

Jenifer, who started 14 games at point guard for Virginia in 2002-03, was released from his scholarship in March. He hadn't played since being suspended from the team Feb.3 after being charged with misdemeanor assault and battery. The charge later was dismissed.

Asked yesterday about Jenifer's plans for the coming school year, Daniel said, "I have no idea whatsoever. I've tried to call him, and he hasn't called back."

The 6-3 Jenifer, who started 15 games as a freshman in 2001-02, has two years of eligibility remaining. He'll have to sit out next season if he transfers to a Division I school.

Jenifer averaged 5.6 points and 5.5 assists in 2002-03, but shot only 33.3 percent from the floor and 55.1 from the line. He lost his starting job after U.Va.'s Jan.21 loss at Virginia Tech. - Jeff White

 

Weaver not expecting a miracle
Virginia Tech AD Jim Weaver doesn't see a 50-50 chance anymore of keeping the Big East together.

By MARK BERMAN
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver seems resigned to the Big East losing Miami, Boston College and Syracuse to the ACC.
At the Big East meetings in Florida two weeks ago, Weaver said there was a 50-50 chance the Big East could keep the trio from changing leagues. Now that the ACC has been conducting the site visits that are a prelude to formal invitations, Weaver is no longer optimistic that the Big East can keep its schools.

"I would think the ACC would not be out as far on a limb if they thought it was going to snap off," Weaver said Tuesday. "The longer it goes, the less likelihood of the Big East remaining intact exists."

An ACC delegation visited Miami last week and Boston College this week. The group's two-day visit to Syracuse will conclude today. Weaver said the schools could be invited and accept the invitations as early as Thursday.

The South Bend Tribune reported last week that Notre Dame - a Big East member in sports other than football - was weighing several options if the three schools join the ACC. The newspaper reported that the school's No.1 option was staying in the Big East and possibly playing a partial Big East football schedule.

Weaver and his Big East peers would love Notre Dame to come aboard for football because the Big East could lose its Bowl Championship Series berth if Miami leaves. Adding Notre Dame, even as a partial member, could save the league's berth.

"It seems like it makes good sense for Notre Dame to play football with us. They have all their other sports with us," Weaver said. "If there's a way that we can attract Notre Dame to play football in the Big East Conference, to me it makes all the sense in the world. Because there's no question in my mind that Notre Dame playing football in the Big East would replace Miami playing football in the Big East."

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger and the presidents of the other Big East football schools not wanted by the ACC will meet with Miami President Donna Shalala in Washington, D.C., today in an attempt to persuade her to spurn the ACC.

"It's just one in a series of efforts we've been making to try to keep the current Big East in existence in its current form," Weaver said.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese and Weaver have said the loss of the schools would do "irreparable harm" to those left behind. On Tuesday, however, Weaver was optimistic about Tech's future.

"Ultimately, we will survive this in good stead and move forward," he said. "I can't tell you what the configuration or where we'll end up, but I believe our program is too good and our university is too good not to survive."

 

Pitino, columnist explain misunderstanding in story
June 04, 2003
Staff writer

It's not unusual for a basketball coach to be at odds with a sports writer in this town. But this time, it's not the coach you think.

University of Louisville's Rick Pitino, a former assistant under coach Jim Boeheim at Syracuse University, said he was misquoted in a story by sports columnist Bob Snyder that appeared in The Post-Standard Sunday. Snyder quoted Pitino as saying Conference USA is "God-awful," and naturally the comment caused a stir in Louisville, where the Cardinals are a charter member of Conference USA.

"Never once did I say a derogatory remark about Conference USA basketball," Pitino said. "We didn't even talk about that."

Snyder and Pitino said their May 28 talk focused on Boeheim because Snyder is writing a book with the SU coach. But their conversation turned to other topics, including Louisville's future in the ever-changing college sports landscape.

"I stand behind my reporting, but in looking back I realized we were talking about Conference USA football, not basketball," Snyder said.

Snyder said he never told Pitino his comments would be used in a newspaper column. While Snyder said all of Pitino's comments were on the record, he regrets he did not tell Pitino that he might use them for his column, and that upset Pitino.

"I'm disappointed because I was doing him a favor in speaking about the nostalgic years of Jim Boeheim for a book that he was writing, not as a Post-Standard writer," Pitino said. "And it switched away from the book to conversations about Jim being upset about leaving the Big East Conference.

"And then we started talking about what we (Louisville) would possibly do," Pitino continued.

Snyder, who has worked for the Herald-Journal and now The Post-Standard for 37 years, said he has known Pitino since 1976 and considers him and Boeheim two of the finest college coaches in the country. Pitino said he likes Snyder "personally and professionally," and he said he just wants the controversy to go away.

"I'm ready to let it drop after today," Pitino said. "I'm not going to say another word about it. I'm going to drop it completely, and I hope he does the same."

 

A show of togetherness by BC, ACC
By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff, 6/3/2003

They asked the right questions, said the right things, and proclaimed mutual respect, with a sense of anticipation that it would all work out for everyone in the future.

That was the essence of a whirlwind day for members of a site committee of Atlantic Coast Conference officials, who yesterday did what they had to do under ACC bylaws -- visit a potential new member school, in this case Boston College.

At the end of the day, there was no indication from anyone involved that the ACC would not add BC, Syracuse, and Miami to expand the ACC to a 12-team, two-division super conference.

''In every respect, this has gone extremely well,'' said ACC commissioner John Swofford at a mid-afternoon press briefing. ''I don't think there is any doubt that if this works out, Boston College would be an excellent fit in the Atlantic Coast Conference in every regard.''

Then again, Swofford and the committee already knew that.

''Much of the information we already have had through various means,'' said Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman, who said the face-to-face visits with BC officials were ''very fruitful.''

From the BC standpoint, it was a chance to show off their facilities on a nice spring day, with assorted athletic department personnel showing up at the press briefing in which the bouquets were tossed from both sides.

BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo reiterated his position that the move to the ACC would ''secure our future. It puts us in a league that is one of the very best in America.''

No official invitations can be extended until the site visits are complete -- Miami has been taken care of and Syracuse will be this week -- so everyone involved talked about this not being a done deal yet. And it may not be if Syracuse has a change of heart about being part of this ''Eastern exodus.''

At Syracuse, where some coaches and students have said this would be the wrong move for the Orangemen, officials will no doubt ask harder questions than BC and Miami did. And if the answers are not forthcoming, Syracuse president Kenneth Shaw might just say no.

The ACC obviously does not think that is going to happen. Swofford said yesterday the ACC had never gone this far and been turned down.

If Syracuse goes along, an official announcement of invitation and acceptance could happen ''in the next month'' said Swofford, but it is more likely to come in the next week.

DeFilippo said BC still had some questions, but they seemed to be along the lines of which division the Eagles would be in.

''Along with Florida State and Miami,'' joked Swofford, ''and Maryland, Duke, and Carolina in basketball.''

Swofford said the target date for the new conference to begin play was the 2005-06 season, but ''it may become more fluid.''

Considering that BC, Syracuse, and Miami will be lame ducks in a league that is not happy about their departure, the situation may be volatile, too. Thus, a launch in 2004-05 season may be a possibility, although there would be certain contractual television roadblocks.

DeFilippo said the past few weeks have been difficult.

''This has been hard,'' he said. ''We have some great rivalries in the Big East.''

Those rivalries are now in jeopardy, and BC is ready to move on. Yesterday was the first step. If Syracuse goes along, the rest will come quickly.

 

Realignment won't scramble TV picture
By Bill Griffith, Globe Staff, 6/3/2003

Wiming, as they say, is everything. And from a TV perspective, the looming expansion of the Atlantic Coast Conference -- adding Miami, Boston College, and Syracuse from the Big East -- is timed perfectly.

''It all fits together,'' said Jimmy Rayburn, vice president of operations at Jefferson-Pilot Sports, which syndicates part of the ACC's televised football package. ''The bulk of any revenue increases from ACC expansion will come from the football side. Obviously the big elements would be a league championship game and increased bowl bids.''

The league's football deals all expire following the 2005 season, which coincides with the expiration of the present BCS agreement. The expanded 12-team ACC would have a league championship game, something that could add $5 million-$6 million to league coffers by itself.

''In a perfect world, a new ACC would begin play in 2006 with new contracts in place,'' said Rayburn. ''But that's three seasons out. If this realignment goes through, I can see present alignments staying in place for two years, then a year of transition.''

For the next three years, the agreements in place for ACC football coverage include over-the-air games on ABC, cable coverage on ESPN, and syndicated regional coverage through Jefferson-Pilot.

A 12-team league can only help the J-P offerings.

''The 12 teams certainly give us more inventory and potentially better matchups,'' said Rayburn. ''Assuming that the 12 schools each have eight conference games, that will give us 48 games over the season.''

Of course, finding an outlet in each new market could be easier said than done.

''A lot of our Mid-Atlantic sponsors -- Southern Bottlers Association, the Southeast Toyota dealers, Food Lion, and local restaurant chains -- aren't going to care about the games in the Northeast,'' he said. ''It's not as easy as flipping a button.

''But we had games in Boston maybe 15 years ago when we did something called `Great American Independent Football' with teams like BC, Army, Navy, Pitt, and Syracuse. I'm not saying we pushed the Big East to form, but we didn't hurt the momentum.''

As much as football is driving the expansion, ACC basketball would benefit from having defending national champion Syracuse as a conference member. Raycom Sports owns the rights to ACC basketball, which it brokers, through the 2010-11 season. At present, Raycom has deals with ESPN, ABC, Fox, and CBS, plus regional deals.

 

Trial a black eye for FSU? You can bet on it
Published June 4, 2003

The suspense is almost over. By Friday, we should know whether Bobby Bowden was on the boat with Scott Peterson when Laci disappeared.

Did Dave Hart hold the ladder for Bruno Hauptmann? And does either have an alibi for the night Chandra Levy vanished?

Technically, today is the start of the State of Florida vs. Adrian McPherson. But the trial is really FSU vs. public perception, and there's no need to wait for the dramatic courtroom conclusion.

The Seminoles already have lost. Any time your ex-QB goes on trial for gambling, the damage to the school's image can't be erased by a not-guilty verdict.

Only this has so much more. There's the Inspector Clousseau in-house investigation. There's the Johnnie Cochran-wanna-be defense lawyer. There's a spotlight usually reserved for cases involving murder, two-timing or a Kennedy.

The elements have come together to form a near-perfect storm. As FSU gets pelted, Seminoles rightly will ask how a misdemeanor became the Trial of the Century. Some will say it's a media conspiracy, though Court TV reportedly is not run by Gators sympathizers.

The network scours America for the most entertaining reality programming. If McPherson's attorney, Grady C. Irvin Jr., has his way, all the Second Judicial Follies is missing is Kato Kaelin and a bloody glove.

Don't get upset at McPherson's lawyer. His job is to spring his client. The best way to do that is to fill the courtroom with smoke, mirrors, dogs and ponies.

Along the way, Irvin actually may pose a couple of interesting questions, such as: If the athletic department is so satisfied with its investigation, why is his client even on trial?

FSU's sleuths uncovered nothing on McPherson. Then again, if Bob Minnix had been sent to investigate the Titanic, he wouldn't have noticed the ice.

At best, the process revealed poor lines of communication within the athletic department. I don't think there's a cover-up, but the pro-inactive approach left plenty of room for suspicion and played right into Irvin's hands.

He will try to put FSU on trial, which could turn this into a Court TV classic. Tuesday's case was -- I'm not making this up -- "Grandma Hires Hitman."

Today's could be "Grandpa Hires Flimflam." Imagine Irvin haranguing Bowden into a Jack Nicholson witness-stand meltdown.

"You want me in that coaching tower! You need me in that coaching tower!"

Judge Ito hopefully will keep the questioning relevant, but a skilled lawyer can release a lot of red herrings.

Irvin -- "Coach Bowden, when you received the totally forgotten phone call from a completely unsubstantiated ex-player alleging my incredibly innocent client intentionally lost the NC State game, did you consider the glaring possibility that the uncharacteristically ineffective offensive line might have conspiratorially conspired to unscrupulously usurp Mr. McPherson's radiant reputation?"

Prosecutor -- "Objection, your honor!"

Irvin -- "I'll restate. Coach Bowden, is it or is it not true that Chris Rix kept a picture of JonBenet Ramsey in his locker?"

Prosecutor -- "Objection!"

Irvin -- "Coach Bowden, didn't Eric Rudolph actually wander in from the woods that night and go 8-for-20 against the Wolfpack?"

Prosecutor -- "Your honor!"

Irvin -- "If the helmet fits, you must acquit!"

Bowden -- "I think ole Rudolph plays linebacker, but you'll have to ask Mickey."

We need a recess.

FSU may be guilty of nothing more than unknowingly harboring a shady quarterback, but by the time this storm passes, it could look like the LAPD after the Dream Team blew through.

Let's just hope that if he walks away in the end, McPherson vows to catch the real gamblers.